Major grocery stores in China's urban cities have two kinds of produce sections; regular vegetables and the organic variety. Boosted by high demand, what was once a limited selection of over-priced organic vegetables is now a more mainstream feature, occupying bigger areas in grocery stores as prices also come down.
In fact, popular organic vegetables all but disappeared from store shelves in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics. This was due to the athletes' village being given priority for certain superior organic produce selected as "Olympic vegetables." The organic brands that disappeared from the shelves during the Olympics are afforded a virtual stamp of safety assurance and such "safe food" is what many people are after.
It is safe to assume that in China, cheap products are made by cutting corners when compared with pricier offerings. Still, ordinary people seek things that are as cheap as possible. The majority of people think that cheaper vegetables can't be bad since that is what they have eaten until now. As for the well-to-do elements of Chinese society, they often have no idea where the vegetables on their plates are bought, as their domestic help handle the grocery shopping.
Then in the fall 2008, after the Beijing Olympics had wrapped up, the tainted milk scandal was exposed. Milk has a somewhat different background from vegetables, in that it is not a part of traditional food culture in China. It was Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who in 2006 began promoting the drinking of milk among citizens, leading to a considerable jump in milk production by domestic dairy producers.
No other food product in China portrays the country's economic disparity any clearer than milk. The most commonly available milk in China is a long-life product that can be stored at room temperature and is sold in 200-cc bags at a cost of approximately 1.5 yuan/bag (about 20 yen) and up. Prices for milk that requires refrigeration, however, range from 11 yuan/liter (about 150 yen) at the cheapest to 25 yuan/liter (about 350 yen) at the top end, both of which are clearly out of the reach of ordinary people.
The melamine-tainted milk products were relatively cheaper brands. The magnitude of the scandal finally hit me when I saw a flock of parents leaving hospital with their children. At the time, my son was also scheduled to have a medical check-up. He was drinking nearly one liter of milk a day. The milk we buy is of the very best quality, a domestic brand that is also served at banquets for state guests at the Great Hall of the People. It was, therefore, no surprise that this particular brand was not on the blacklist of tainted milk.
At the recommendation of my son's doctor, we took him for a thorough kidney examination one morning without letting him use the bathroom. In the end, we breathed a sigh of relief as he was given a clean bill of health, but the thought of little children ending up suffering from kidney stones because of the food their parents gave them still pains me immensely. I pray it will never happen again.
